This morning I attended the funeral of a friend. My buddy Dave was a leader amongst his friends, his family, and his colleagues. As any good leader would do, he gave specific instructions for his funeral to be a celebration of his life. He did not want his service to be somber. He would have been proud of the way his instructions were carried out. As is the case with most funerals, there were some tears for my friend Dave. But as a reminder to those in attendance that today was about celebration, there were three easels standing at the entry to the sanctuary. Each held a collage of pictures from his life. Whether the pictures were from his childhood or from his days as a proud parent and gra
There are some people who spend a great deal of energy trying to separate their work life from their home life. They put their colleagues in a group, and their friends in another. Those who are successful miss a great opportunity to enhance communication when working with a team. So often I hear people talk about how disagreements within a work group stand in the way of moving an organization forward. Quite frankly, that’s easy to understand. After all, if the only time you spend with your colleagues is around a conference room table discussing the business at hand, it’s easy to become impatient and short with people you don’t know very well. But when the people you work with on a team inter
We measure all kinds of things in business. Revenue, expense, profitability, turnover, inventory, etc. You name it, and it probably shows up on a corporate report at the end of the month. There is a simple reason for all this reporting. We set objectives, and the reporting lets us know if we’re on track to meet the objectives. There is an old saying that if you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it. In many ways, we’re measuring things so we can manage them. Those things most organizations choose to measure are tied to their strategic objectives — the bigger picture. The engagement of employees is a high priority for many organizations, but high priorities don’t mean anything until th
